Anchomanes gigantea

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1999.10.18 at 23:23:42(3767) >Dear Wilbert, Thanks for all the information on this interesting and often misinterprited genus!! Question---is A giganteus in cultivation ANYWHERE?? There are two species/varieties common in cultivation here, the only differences seem to be the difference in color around the spines on the petioles/peduncles (one has paler spots around each spine ) AND the difference in the rhizomes, one grows horizoltally along the ground, the other almost vertically, the spathes may be different colors, I am not sure. Bjorn got his plants from the old collection at the Botanical Garden at Frankfurt University. A little later on today I will forward to you a couple of his letters with info. on his plant, it MAY be interesting or informative to you. I have forwarded your wonderful info., and hopefully it will be posted on Aroid-l, thanks so much again!! Cheers, Julius< +More >>Dear Julius, Anchomanes giganteus is a perfectly good species (I've seen the type) BUT the stuff in cultivation is not that species. I guess this has been said on this forum several times but people are often blind to "taxonomy". The plant described recently here, with white berries turning reddish-violet, is Anchomanes difformis, the most common and widespread species in Africa. It comes in a number of "forms", the typical one having a deep purple-brown spathe and elongate ovaries of which the style points downward (see attached scans). The other extreme of the variation range is a form often identified at the species level as Anchomanes welwitschii, which has a pale pinkish spathe and the styles being very reduced, yet still visibly pointing downwards and being placed on the lower half of the ovary's upper surface (unfortunately, I don't have scans available at the moment). I have done a short, yet unpublished study-ette on this group and I agree with Engler, that this A. welwitschii doesn't deserve species rank, so its name would be A. difformis var. welwitschii. In the end it produces the same nice colour-change of maturing berries, from white to reddish-violet. Also, as with the other forms of difformis, it quite often produces these seeds without pollination. The name Anchomanes hookeri, often figuring prominently on aroid-l, also represents a form of Anchomanes difformis. One in which the styles of the ovaries are exceptionally strongly verrucate. You will notice in my close-up of the styles that in my plant they are clearly verrucate, yet not as strong as is described for "A. hookeri". Nothing to make a fuss about, just NOT a good species. That name should disappear entirely in synonymy. The complication is that in the the recent floras of the western African states (e.g. Ivory Coast, Cameroon), ANOTHER species has universally wrongly been labelled Anchomanes welwitschii. This is the plant that can also be seen under that wrong name in several editions of Exotica. It has a bright green spathe, and the stigmas are almost sessile on the ovaries and much larger than those in A. difformis and its forms and much more centric on the ovary (see scans). This species is Anchomanes dalzielii Rendle, a name that has been totally ignored in the literature. I have planned to correct this in a paper. Maybe something for Aroideana. This species produces bright red berries (see scans) and that also separates it easily from A. difformis et al. In the leafy stage, A. difformis and A. dalzielii can be easily separated, since in the latter, the wedge-shaped top of the leaflets is much broader than in A. difformis. In general, the leaflets are more robust in A. dalzielii. A. dalzielii IS in cultivation and I wouldn't be surprised if some Aroid-ellers have it, probably unknowingly. Hope you enjoyed this little expose. If you think this is useful for aroid-l, please send it through. Cheers, Wilbert<< > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: Julius Boos [mailto:ju-bo@email.msn.com] > Verzonden: donderdag 14 oktober 1999 10:58 > Aan: Hetterscheid, W. > Onderwerp: Re: Anchomanes gigantea > > > Dear Wilbert, > What`s the scoop on Anchomanes giganteus Engler (in Das > Pflan., )?? Is > this a 'good' species?? > Cheers, > Julius > >

From: rharias at juno.com on 1999.10.20 at 02:03:16(3773) How does Anchomanes dalzielii Rendle differ from A. dalzielii N. E. Brown? ___________________________________________________________________ +More Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1999.10.20 at 21:29:26(3775) Dear Friend, Wilbert will probably clear this up, but my guess (GUESS, mind you!) is that this is a typo error in some paper, and that it can be cleared up if one can find out from the literature where/when the species was first described, the original paper`s author will be the correct name after the species. I do not have acess to this paper here, but perhaps Wilbert or Pete at Kew can check and let us know. Cheers, Julius +More >How does Anchomanes dalzielii Rendle differ from A. dalzielii N. E. Brown?< ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.

From: "Hetterscheid, W." Hetter at Plantscope.nl> on 1999.10.20 at 21:34:28(3776) There is no difference.. I was just stupid enough to cite the wrong author of the species epithet. It should be A. dalzielii N.E.Brown. Sorry folks! Wilbert +More > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: rharias@juno.com [mailto:rharias@juno.com] > Verzonden: woensdag 20 oktober 1999 3:02 > Aan: hetter@plantscope.nl > Onderwerp: Re: Fw: Anchomanes gigantea > > > How does Anchomanes dalzielii Rendle differ from A. dalzielii N. E. > Brown? > > ___________________________________________________________________ > Get the Internet just the way you want it. > Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! > Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. > >

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